Transhumanism
Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international philosophical movement that advocates for the transformation of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies to greatly enhance human intellect and physiology. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations as well as the ethical limitations of using such technologies. The most common transhumanist thesis is that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into different beings with abilities so greatly expanded from the current condition as to merit the label of posthuman beings. These transformations are seen as potential ways to face ecological crisis-es among other issues. The contemporary meaning of the term "transhumanism" was foreshadowed by one of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the human" at The New School in the 1960s, when he began to identify people who adopt technologies, lifestyles and worldviews "transitional" to posthumanity as "transhuman". The assertion would lay the intellectual groundwork for the British philosopher Max More to begin articulating the principles of transhumanism as a futurist philosophy in 1990, and organizing in California an intelligentsia that has since grown into the worldwide transhumanist movement. Influenced by seminal works of science fiction, the transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives, including philosophy and religion. In megaten, all the sides do tend to have elements of transhumanism. Though what their focus is will tend to be different on each side. Since they so radically diverge, the way they approach the concept veers from eachother heavily. While neutral is less transhumanist than the other sides, due to its focus on preserving the unique essence of humanity rather than radical transformation it still does have transhumanist elements. Transhumanism by alignment General Posthumanism is the desire to become a post-human. While all the alignments have elements of this, it is more associated with law, and especially chaos. In the case of law, you have humans not only becoming transformed radically but even some becoming angels. and for chaos, you have people becoming demonoids and demons. In the case of neutral, you also have post-humans though they tend to retain or try to retain more of what they consider the human essence as opposed to the other alignments. While transhuman elements of this often relate to genetic engineering or cybernetics, due to the mystical elements of the series, the technological and the mystical are blended into one concept. The mystical here is also often used as a metaphor for transhuman elements in general, such as with law's focus on moral bioenhancement, which is occasionally done via mystical means despite relating to a transhumanist concept and law being tied to ideas of technological utopianism. Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech" featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order. Cyberpunk is often tied to the idea of transhumanism, since cyberpunk worlds often involve transformation of human nature, though not always to positive affect. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact of modern societal and technological developments, but without the optimism of earlier science fiction. Cyberpunk plots often center on conflict among artificial intelligences, hackers, and megacorporations, and tend to be set in a near-future Earth, rather than in the far-future settings or galactic vistas found in novels such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation or Frank Herbert's Dune. The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to feature extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its original inventors ("the street finds its own uses for things"). Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes film noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from detective fiction. There are sources who view that cyberpunk has shifted from a literary movement to a mode of science fiction due to the limited number of writers and its transition to a more generalized cultural formation. The megaten series in its origins was heavily tied to the idea of cyberpunk, especially SMTII which was based in major cyberpunk tropes such as the city setting, people surviving in the slums via use of this advanced tech, and a central more clean area presented as the villains. It also ties to cyberpunk themes of rebellion against the situation you find yourself in. Law Moral bioenhancement. '''One transhumanist focus that is unique to law in the games is the concept of moral bioenhancement. Moral bioenhancement is a recent topic that is now big in bioethics that addresses the nature of transforming humanity such that a more virtuous nature is their baseline nature. This topic exists based on the fact that while human tech is increasing, many major issues that remain in human society are not the product of insufficient technological development, but the fact that moral development in its natural state does not advance as quickly, and may be heavily bounded by human nature. For instance, a major topic related to the concept of moral bioenhancement is global warming, and the nature of humanity not being green enough. One approach ties to noting that while its not that the tech is not there to design or use necessarily, but that humans, both on an individual and collective level simply don't care enough to use it or arrange society in a more sustainable way, since the affects are not personal or provoking enough of an emotional reaction to motivate them. As such, a development of wide scale ability for moral enhancement could change humanity's ability to find solutions for this or other problems. This is something that actually comes up a bit in strange journey. In its neutral end you are basically told that its a crapshoot as to whether humanity will really find a solution for the environmental problems (with redux basically saying they didn't). Chaos solves it by simply destroying modern society, but law solves it by transforming the consciousness of humanity such that finding a solution is much easier. Bioethicists even talk about how in an apocalypse-like situations if the environment were to get bad enough, if the technology for enhancement were there, governments would have reason at least in theory to make it mandatory or at least highly pressured rather than optional. (Though obviously these same bioethicists note the significant issues with doing so in practice). In terms of criticism of this type of transhumanism, a few things come up. Obviously the feasibility of doing this for real in real situations in a beneficial way is a criticism of anything. But in terms of a theoretical idea. One criticism is that it violates some concept of human nature, and that humans "should" stick with their nature. Which ironically, this insistence on keeping with one's nature in real life is mostly propositioned by religious groups, even though in megaten neutral is depicted as "less religious." One criticism is that it is less authentic, because it uses certain tech to solve issues or enhance virtue, rather than it being a natural development. Or that it is somehow an assault on human dignity. Critics of the critics note that assuming that it is less authentic seems to go back to presupposing that there is a baseline human nature even though if human nature were to be changed that would just be the new nature. Rejecting human enhancement in this way is known as the bioconservative thesis or bioconservatism. One more interesting criticism was that if it worked on qualities that have to already be present within people, this might widen the gap between moral and immoral people if it needs to play off of altruism and long term thinking that some people lack entirely. Megaten notes this too. Its depictions of moral enhancement only work on individuals suited for it to begin with. And so when you see law wanting to reshape the world system it is based on concerns that it can only work if it were to be made a universal paradigm, elsewise the affects would be subsumed and minimal. When they kill people in game it is not based on randomness, but on whether their presence would diminish the affects, and the long term planning presupposed by them. '''Technological utopianism or technoutopianism is an ideology based on the premise that advances in science and technology could and should bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal. In many games law has a large focus on this. This ties to its themes of artificial order that contrasts the natural chaos of the chaos side. One point being made is that a technological utopia that has uniform advanced would heavily slant to a controlled and more uniform society in some ways. And so this is being depicted as orderly. One criticism is that these utopian ideals can easily morph into dystopian ones. Immortalism is the belief in using transhumanist means to end aging. While this is not depicted overtly as an aspect of law in every game, in the original strange journey it was an aspect of the law ending, and in SMTII you see people in arcadia mention it as a possibility. In contrast, in strange journey lucifer says that a world where nothing dies and nothing is born would be sterile and have no growth, making it in essence not really count as having life either. Virtual reality refers to the creation of a computer simulated world that people could live in as if it were the real one by attaching themself to machines. Most commonly seen in movies like the matrix. The idea of a virtual reality was first introduced as a law leaning creation in the case of SMTII where one was used to create the simulated paradise of arcadia, and again in smt nine. Though one also shows up in soul hackers unrelated to law. Ethical concerns relate to the fact that it would give those in charge of it a large amount of power over those whose routines involve interaction with it. Which is why it is associated with a law leaning goal of central planning. And there are concerns about its relation to authenticity if it were to enhance or inhibit it, or how it would relate to the real world. Notably, the dds games point out how the real world is in essence virtual as well, making it not fundamentally different. It is tied to transhumanism in that it can give a post human experience via the nature of the virtual realm. Neutral The bioconservative thesis or bioconservatism is the stance of a conservative or skeptical attitude towards transhumanist action, saying that it could radically change humanity in unacceptable ways to delve too readily into it. Bioconservatism is characterized by a belief that technological trends in today's society risk compromising human dignity, and by opposition to movements and technologies including transhumanism, human genetic modification, "strong" artificial intelligence, and the technological singularity. Some concerns that lead to bioconservatism are the fact that enough transformations of humanity could be tied to a loss of human identity. Or a loss of authenticity, of one's existence were to be heavily augmented via cybernetics. This can also tie to the idea that it violates some kind of human nature or dignity to do this too haphazardly, either inherently, or in practice. As well as concerns about unexpected consequences. While neutral is not fully bioconservative, it does have strong elements of it. For instance, it rejects the radical transformations of humanity that law and chaos are trying to instigate. In the case of law, because neutral rejects the mental focus towards order it would create, and in the case of chaos, because it sees this merging with demons being a widespread thing as too dangerous to modern society. Despite this, it is not entirely against the concept of transhumanism as a whole, since figures like steven are meta-humans. Though even when such figures are present neutral tends to like to distance itself from them, not integrating them too much into human society for fear that they would prevent humanity from being able to be fostered on their own. One thing to note is that in the far future it is mentioned that humanity has an innate ability to use magic called newill. And that in the far future a time comes when this becomes more activated for more people, since a way was found to foster it. So an element of transhumanism is present here in that this future neutral society eventually fosters a degree of it even though it tends to want to approach it slowly. Newill is described however as fairly weak in most people, giving only the potential for some very basic magic. Chaos Biopunk is a term either for a subgenre of fiction that like cyberpunk focuses of the elements of advancing technology, but with a focus more on biotechnology, or a type of punk ideology related to one's use of said abilities. In terms of an ideology, biopunk relates to a focus on rebellion with the use of biohacking one's own body in order to foster liberation. Chaos has a heavy element of this in that chaos society or chaos figures in general heavily encourages humans to merge with demons in personal ways, transforming their biology. A negative aspect of this is that since it revolves around one's personal actions of doing so in a kind of DIY ethic that it can come with high chance for mistakes and potential self mutilation. It is tied to the idea of body modification culture. In terms of chaos, its goal is for people to be able to live without being divorced from the laws of nature, so it often places more of a focus on transforming your nature rather than on use of tech. With tech, while being present, often being downplayed in favor of more natural looking areas and biohacking. By this means it encourages people to be able to live partially more like intelligent animals, but with bodies of their own designs. While irl biopunk does not take this in a darwinistic way de facto, chaos uses this personal approach to transformation as an unfolding of the chaos of reality, and tied to asserting your autonomy and self preservation. Similar to the way it was depicted in the first bioshock. Biohackers are also referred to as grinders in biopunk works. Criticisms of biopunk often tie to the fact that individuals being able to alter themself in this way could lead to dangerous situations such as people being able to turn their own body into a lethal weapon, or accidentally change their mentality such to lead to the accidental creation of more sociopaths. While these same criticisms relate to why neutral doesn't approve of the chaotic eagerness to merge with demons, chaos actually considers this a feature rather than a bug, encouraging people to do what they can, and if it leads to violence or ends badly others will simply have to use their own force to stop them. Libertarian transhumanism is a political ideology synthesizing libertarianism and transhumanism. Mainly tying to people's use of it being personal, and the risks and benefits of it being up to them. Though chaos in-game tends to be more extreme than most libertarians. Anarcho transhumanism is a form of anarchism based on the idea that transhumanist tech will provide a means for people to be able to live independently, and rebel against oppressive structures of control. Note that chaos is not entirely identical to either commonly presented versions of this, or the above libertarian transhumanism, but resembles aspects of each.